4 Days – Mountains and the South

Few images say 'Georgia' like Gergeti Trinity Church standing alone at 2170 m against the glaciers of Mount Kazbek. The drive itself, along the Georgian Military Highway, is one of the world's great mountain roads, past fortresses, gorges and the high Gudauri bowl. In Stepantsminda the air is thin and the light changes by the minute, so every visit produces a different photograph. Whether you come for a day or stay the night, this is the Caucasus at its most iconic, and it never disappoints.

Borjomi's lightly sparkling mineral water made this forest gorge famous across half the world; you can still drink it warm, straight from the source, in the town's landscaped park. All around rises Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, one of Europe's largest, with hiking trails threading endless conifer forest. Romanov princes built their summer palace here for the climate. It remains the classic Georgian spa town, pine air included.

In the 12th century Queen Tamar's builders carved an entire city into a cliff above the Mtkvari: thirteen floors of dwellings, chapels, refectories and wine cellars, home to thousands of monks. An earthquake later sliced the mountain open, exposing the honeycomb you climb through today. Frescoes from Georgia's golden age still glow in the rock-cut Church of the Dormition. Walking its tunnels and stairways, with swallows wheeling over the valley below, feels like entering a legend that happens to be real.

Rabati Castle in Akhaltsikhe is a city within walls: a Georgian church, an Ottoman mosque, a synagogue quarter, gardens, towers and a keep, restored into one fairytale labyrinth. Every staircase opens a new courtyard; every rampart a new view over the town and hills. The mix of styles tells the true story of Georgia's south, where empires met for centuries. Come late in the day, when the stone glows and the crowds thin.